Lives of the Lovelorn: Sharon Carter and Captain America, The First Time Around

Back in the Silver Age, Captain America emerged from his long frozen nap, a man out of time. When he came upon a woman who looked very much like the woman he had been in love with during World War II (less than twenty years earlier at that point), was it surprising that he fell for her as well?

Surprising, no. Kind of creepy, yes. Particularly when it turned out that the reason this girl looked so much like the girl Cap had loved was because she was her younger sister. (I'm not sure whether the current situation, with Sharon falling for her great-aunt's boyfriend, is more or less creepy. About the same, I think.)



They say the course of true love never runs smoothly, and it certainly doesn't for Cap and Sharon. Cap, of course, is a superhero and an Avenger, and Sharon is one of SHIELD's top agents. In other words, neither of them has much time off and when they do it rarely occurs at the same time. Add to that the fact that Cap isn't happy about Sharon's career in the first place, and conflict is inevitable.



It does seem, today, as if Cap--who seemed to adjust pretty easily to most aspects of modern life--was stuck in the 40s when it came to women, or at least to his woman. That's something that's hard to adjust for when you take into account the sliding timeline that now places his revival sometime in the 90s (not his actions so much as her reactions) and it's hard to see a hero, the best hero according to many, acting in such a sexist manner, regardless of his background. It's actually not that hard to explain, though--he reacts at first in about the same way to threats to Rick Jones as he does to threats against Sharon, and I think it's fair to say that it's not so much a native sexism at work as it is a fear of losing someone close to him again, particularly (as in the case of the teenage Rick who reminds him so much of Bucky--you know, Steve does seem to connect most intensely in the modern world with those who resemble the people he was close to in the past, there's probably something to look at there) someone he feels a responsibility for. There is surely some residual 40s state of mind at work here as well, but there's more to it than that.

In any case, Steve moves quickly when it comes to romance. Here he is on his first real date with Sharon. He doesn't even know her real name at this point.



Steve takes her refusal hard. So hard that he decides to retire as Captain America. Sharon is not thrilled about this (nor is anyone else) but it has no effect on her devotion to duty.



They go back and forth like this for some time, with Cap not developing much of a tolerance for Sharon's career during this time period. In case there was any question about his feelings on the subject:



Occasionally he seems to be more accepting of her work and the danger it puts her in.



But it doesn't last long, and pretty soon he's making unreasonable requests again.



You'll notice that in that last scene, he has obviously gotten over his generalized fear of losing someone close to him--he has taken the teenaged Rick Jones on as a partner--so at this point you can really only call it sexism.

And then there's this:



Have I mentioned that, even in the 60s, Nick Fury was awesome? Well, apart from the clear implication that if Sharon was married she would automatically quit her job at SHIELD... but other than that, pure awesome.

So anyway, Cap is getting nowhere trying to convince Sharon to quit her job, so what does he do? He goes to her boss!



Fury is a pragmatist. Sharon may be one of his top agents, but losing the use of Captain America for SHIELD missions--that's a threat he can't ignore. To his credit, he plans to leave it up to Sharon.



Cap, however, presents it to her as if it were a done deal. And in one of the most WTF things I've ever seen in even a Silver Age comic, Sharon not only agrees to this, she seems happy about it. Possibly she's just been worn down by Steve's constant nagging. But this one panel goes against just about every bit of Sharon characterization ever since she was introduced.




Apparently Sharon had every intention of sticking to the desk job thing. But, this being comics, it wasn't going to happen. Once Fury and Cap had both gone on their various missions, a message came in warning Cap of a trap. Since apparently neither of them thought to bring a phone, Sharon had to go warn him in person, which she did, getting into yet another dangerous situation in the process. And--this being comics--this led to a misunderstanding, where Cap is convinced that neither Fury nor Sharon had any intention of her taking that desk job and walks off in a pouty huff.




And that's the end of the road, at least as far as I know from Marvel Essentials. I know that they continued to have an off and on relationship. I know that, inevitably, Sharon never did quit SHIELD or give up the dangerous missions, and that eventually Cap (and new writers) came to accept this. But I don't have those stories to refer to, so we're just going to leave it here for now, with Cap being a big jerk and Sharon trying her best to accommodate him.